MORE than 6½ years after Tony Blair defied opposition at home and abroad to invade Iraq, the official inquiry into the conflict finally began hearing evidence yesterday.

By the time the UK halted combat operations in April this year, 179 British personnel were dead and many more had been injured. Feelings are still raw among those who campaigned against the war or lost loved ones in the fighting.

A small number of protesters turned up yesterday to demonstrate outside the inquiry hearing in the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre, just across the road from the Houses of Parliament, in central London. Among those watching was Pauline Graham, 70, from Glasgow, whose grandson, Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, was killed in Basra, southern Iraq, in June, 2004.

She attended with her daughter, Rose Gentle, who has been a vocal opponent of the Government’s policy in Iraq since her son’s death. Mrs Graham said: “Five years we’ve waited for this, and finally we’re getting somewhere.

“I think it went very well but there are a lot of questions to be answered. It all boils down to 9/11.”

She plans to return when the inquiry hears evidence from Mr Blair in the New Year.